Apple's Focus on Innovation the Source of its Woes?

[Mr. Lothario]

     http://pf.fastcompany.com/magazine/78/jobs.html

[|MP|Nomad]

Cool article Lothy, what's yer take on it?

[Mr. Lothario]

     Well, the author gives inaccurate details on several technical points, and most of them are things that would have been correct if sufficient research had been done, so that aspect makes me a little leery. The economic points seem on the mark, however, or at least sufficiently so to be useful in discussion here, so I posted it. : )

[|MP|Nomad]

Inaccurate technical details, like what?? just curious and I know the article is quite long, so you don't have to list them all, just the jist of it would be cool.

[Mr. Lothario]

     Basically, there is one definite mistake and one quibble that I noticed.

     "...the new G5 desktop, the first 64-bit computer and the industry's fastest ever..." This is pure marketing hype. If the author had said "first 64-bit PC" or something similar, it would be accurate. Calling it the first 64-bit computer reveals a lack of research or a lack of understanding of the fundamental technical details.

     "Yet when Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he terminated the first and last licensing program, championed by former chief executive Gilbert Amelio. Jobs is reported to have told Apple managers that he feared "Mac knockoffs" would dilute the Apple brand." That may be true, but the clones were primarily canned because Apple was losing large amounts of money from loss of sales of Apple-brand computers.

[PsYcO aSsAsSiN]

So your gripes with that article is essentially that he left out the word "personal" in front of computer and that he included a rumor in his article.

I read the article and it pretty much hit the mark. If executives at Apple paid any attention in marketing and accounting classes, they could still easily dominate the mp3 player market with its iPod. However, it seems that Apple is content with what it has done in the market and refuses to expand in it and lower the prices (iPod's are essentially the same device they were when they first debuted). With competition coming from the other products listed in that article, my gut feeling is that iPod won't be the "in" demand product in the future that it still is today.

[-SW- Baz]

new ipods will definately be comming in 7 days - smaller, more colorful, and cheaper

check out:
www.macrumors.com
www.slashdot.org/apple
www.macbytes.com

even though it's still "rumors" i'd say when so many sources are "confirming" it it's gonna happen

[|MP|Buccaneer]

they could still easily dominate the mp3 player market with its iPod.

The DO, not could.  They are still way on top with the iPod, so talk like it's a hasbeen is premature.

[PsYcO aSsAsSiN]

they could still easily dominate the mp3 player market with its iPod.

The DO, not could.  They are still way on top with the iPod, so talk like it's a hasbeen is premature.

Yes they do, but they are losing market share as of late due to competitive models debuting for cheaper while Apple hasn't done shit regarding the iPod. If you read a little down from where y ou quoted, you will see that I said this:

my gut feeling is that iPod won't be the "in" demand product in the future that it still is today.

[|MP|Buccaneer]

Problem is your assumption that it's competitive models debuting cheaper, when I think (my assumption) that it's just the first time they've had anything close to competition.  

And even now, it's not that close.  The new MP3's haven't taken a bite out of the Apple yet, because they just aren't good enough yet.  When you are the best, and the others haven't caught up yet, it's not a problem yet.

Apple has done everything it needs to (especially bringing iPod and then iTunes to Windoze) to keep the iPod way on top.  It hasn't done shit, it's done the right things to keep it's growth.  They couldn't build enough to meet demand for Christmas according to what I've read.